Abington absolutely awesome’ in football rout of Mashpee

Abington High football coach Jim Kelliher has been known to loudly point out when his players don’t approach the perfection he’s always pursuing.

But after Saturday night’s critical South Shore League showdown with undefeated Mashpee, Kelliher could be heard telling his postgame huddle their efforts had been “absolutely awesome.”

This is roughly akin to Bill Belichick dancing the macarena at his Patriots postgame press conference, but if his team ever approaches the performance the Green Wave did last night in routing the Falcons 34-7, we might see the Hooded One doing just that.

Abington had added inspiration for the game, as assistant coach Mark Chirokas, just out of the hospital after battling leukemia for 80 days, was standing in the north end zone cheering them on.

Abington (7-0, 4-0 South Shore League) turned two turnovers into two touchdowns with the game’s first five minutes, and didn’t look back.

Not much went right for Mashpee (4-3, 3-1 SSL) all night long, while the Green Wave responded to their most important game yet with a flawless night.

Abington’s second touchdown, for example, was a nifty double-reverse/flea flicker they had never even tried in a game before: It went for a 33-yard TD to senior Tim Ferguson, who was so wide open he was closer to the snack bar than any Mashpee defender.

Abington was consistently moving the ball on the ground with its committee of running backs, but when they needed a big play, the aerial game of senior quarterback Brandon Cawley was efficient and then some. Cawley hit his first five passes in a row, and finished his night after three quarters, having connected on nine of 11 throws for 215 yards, four TDs and a two-point conversion, with one interception.

Cawley’s favorite target was senior end Joe Buckley, who hauled in six passes for 92 yards, including two TDs and a two-point conversion.

On the other end, the Falcons – last year’s Division Four Super Bowl champions – could never get untracked, and had a third fumble in the first period negated by a penalty.

Overall Mashpee had three turnovers and a blocked punt, and the Green Wave defense held them to 11 yards of net offense in the first half.

At the end of three periods, when Abington began substituting liberally, the home team had amassed an incredible 268-25 edge in net yardage.

“We came in here tonight thinking this was our biggest game of the year,” said Buckley. “We wanted to come out fast and put the pressure on them, and we did.”

“We had been saying all week, this is the kind of game any athlete should want to be in,” said Kelliher. “We came out and did a lot of things right, and had some real big-game intensity.”

The game began with a move that seemed like an Abington gamble gone awry, as an onside kick didn’t go the required 10 yards, and Mashpee got the ball on the Green Wave 42 yard line. But two plays later, an Abington blitz disrupted a handoff, and senior Pat Dwyer recovered the Falcon fumble. That started a nine-play Abington march for the first TD, highlighted by a 30-yard pass play to Buckley, before senior back Babila Fonkem went two yards up the middle for the touchdown. For the points-after, Cawley tossed to Buckley and Abington led 8-0 midway through the first period.

Mashpee fumbled the ensuing kickoff, with Green Wave senior David Manzo recovering at the Mashpee 33.

That’s when Abington unveiled its razzle-dazzle, with Fonkem taking a handoff to sweep right, then handing off to Matt Kilmain apparently sweeping left, until the ball was flipped back to Cawley. When the QB looked down field, he saw Ferguson as open as he will ever see any receiver if he plays another 20 years. Abington led 14-0, and the second TD had taken exactly 18 seconds since the first.

Abington tried a pooch kickoff next, and the ball was batted around before Manzo seemed to recover it again, but a Green Wave penalty returned the ball to Mashpee. That mattered little, as Abington was soon on the move again, embarking on an 11-play drive that went into the second quarter, and featured Fonkem and Kilmain running.

The third touchdown came on a five-yard Cawley-to-Buckley toss, for a 20-0 advantage, 6:21 before halftime.

Mashepee’s next possession ended with a punt partially blocked by Manzo and Dwyer, which rolled out of bounds after traveling all of nine yards. Abington’s next, seven-play, drive began on its own 36, and featured a 14-yard draw play from Cawley, before the QB fired a 29-yard TD pass to Ferguson that made it 26-0 at the half.

The early Abington trickery on the kickoffs certainly seemed to unnerve Mashpee, whose players seemed jittery and tight with the ball from that point on.

“We’ve worked a lot on our kicks and our kicking game,” Kelliher noted, “and it was certainly good to see a couple of them worked out well tonight.”

Abington’s first possession of the third quarter resulted in another brutally efficient nine-play march, aided by a Mashpee personal foul penalty near midfield. Buckley made a spectacular catch, running under a long ball down the right sideline for a 33-yard pickup.

The TD came on a Cawley-to-Buckley 13-yard connection. Cawley went up the middle for the two-point conversion and a 34-0 margin, with 5:25 left in the third period.

Before the third period ended, Cawley showed signs of being human, as Mashpee’s DeShaun Dias picked him off near midfield. But five plays later, early in the final frame, Ferguson intercepted a Mashpee pass, so no damage was done. Cawley and most of the Green Wave starters were on the sidelines by then, as Abington finished the game with a battalion of young fry.

Kelliher wanted to point out that Friday’s rainout had necessitated a community effort to get the field in shape for Saturday night.

“We want to thank all the parents and students who came down here early today and helped us with the tarps and preparing the field,” Kelliher said. “We couldn’t have done it without all their help.”

Kelliher for one wasn’t shocked by Buckley’s big game.

“I believe he had truly the best night of his season, probably of his career, right here,” said Kelliher. “But we see him all the time, and we really think he’s capable of doing that at any time. But it is surely nice to see it all come together for him like it did tonight.”

“I would agree it was my best game ever,” Buckley said. “It couldn’t have come at a better time for us.”

Abington takes a commanding lead in the SSL race, but they also remain the biggest target on every remaining foe’s schedule.

“We have Rockland next week, and so we know we have to continue to work hard, and not rest on our laurels,” said Kelliher. “We will not have any easy games from here on out, and we know we can’t stop working hard.”